State-owned Punjab National Bank on Wednesday suspended 10 officials in connection with jewellery designer Nirav Modi fraud case, reported news agency ANI. The latest development comes in the backdrop of the bank detecting fraudulent and unauthorised transactions worth about Rs 11,300 crore at one of its branches in Mumbai.
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Earlier in the day, the bank disclosed that it has detected some fraudulent transactions with financial implication of $1.171 billion (about Rs 11,334.4 crore) and the matter has been referred to law enforcement agencies for the recovery.
The bank said in a regulatory filing the transactions were “for the benefit of a few select account holders with their apparent connivance” and that “based on these transactions other banks appear to have advanced money to these customers abroad.” PNB, the country’s second-biggest state-run lender and fourth-biggest overall by assets, did not name the people involved but said it had reported the deals to law enforcement agencies and would evaluate later whether it faces any liability arising out of the transactions.
Meanwhile, finance ministry tried to allay concerns over the fraud case and said it has "not gone out of control" and is taking action in this respect. "I don't think this is out of control or too big a worry at this point. That is my broad sense," said Joint Secretary in Department of Financial Services Lok Rajan in New Delhi.
This is the second incident in less than 10 days where the bank has been defrauded. On February 5, the CBI booked billionaire diamond merchant Nirav Modi, his wife, brother, and a business partner for allegedly cheating Punjab National Bank of over Rs 280.70 crore during 2017.
The CBI has acted on a complaint from the PNB, which alleged that Modi, his brother Nishal, wife Ami and Mehul Chinubhai Choksi were in conspiracy with officials of the bank and cheated it, causing "wrongful loss".
(With inputs from agencies)